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"We are aware that both services are set to lose more capacity in September and our clinicians are telling us that we need to urgently reconfigure these services to make sure they can continue to operate safely. I want to reassure our patients and communities that these services are operating safely at the moment. If you are receiving treatment please continue to access these services.

"What we must do now is listen to our clinical leaders and take action to prevent these services from becoming unsafe."

A decision will be made on July 25 as to how the services will be reconfigured from September 1.

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Mr Sunley added: "Once any urgent changes are in place we will work together with staff, patients, stakeholders and the wider public to look at options for the longer term future of these services."

Liane Langdon, the chief officer at the North Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said: "We fully understand the need for this urgent action and we are working with North East Lincolnshire clinical group and the trust to assess and address the impact on the local population.

"We will ensure that the patients and the wider population are involved going forward as we make changes to the way we organise and deliver these and other services."

Urology and ear, nose and throat services both operate at Scunthorpe General Hospital

Currently, the trust delivers around-the-clock urology emergency care at both Grimsby and Scunthorpe Hospitals, with planned care delivered across all its sites.

To deliver care safely on a 24/7 basis, the trust needs six consultants.

The service has, however, seen a significant turnover in consultants and has been reliant on long-term locums who have now moved on.

There are currently four consultants running the service, but this will reduce to three in September.

Each consultant works during the day and on call on evenings and weekends, which the trust says is becoming increasing difficult to sustain and hospital chiefs fear it will be an unsafe option for both the staff involved and patients when the staff numbers reduce to three.

In the ear, nose and throat department, to deliver care safely 24/7 the trust needs five consultants.

The service has suffered with high sickness and vacancy rates over the last 12 months and currently has two consultants in post.

The service is operating safely with extra capacity provided by another trust.

Due to the capacity issues the service is already alternating on-call cover between the two main hospital sites, resulting in patients being transferred between sites out of hours.